The Elephants and Our Destiny

( Size: 47" x 50" Oils )

This painting has various topics running through it. From women in society, remembrance, apocalyptical tendencies, life, to the obscure, the extreme, and the slaughter of the Elephants and related species of Africa.

Firstly, women in today's society. They appear to be adrift on an ocean of self expression and indulgence, giving their counterparts (men) an inane feeling of worthlessness at home and in the workplace. Since the 1950's there as been a gradual decline in following custom or conventional family practices.

Feminist groups have developed at a pace, all (may I add) to the betterment of women world-wide. This pace of development is in certain circles of society leading to confusion and uneasiness with both sexes walking a tightrope of political correctness and equality. Freedom and emancipation for women will be paramount as we enter the new millennium, but at what cost ? Man's role within society is being slowly emasculated.

Subjects in the painting:

The painting depicts a bikini clad woman standing alone on top of a monolith, her left hand shading her eyes, looking out over the abyss, a wasteland, infinity. She is symbolically looking, seeking that something else.

The Four Horse's Heads

Represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They symbolise the evils of man running wild, rampant, creating an abode to house all evil - pandemonium.

The Lifebelt

Minus its lifeline, suggests that "WE" after the "Horse has Bolted" close the gate by sending "OUR" token gestures of aid to rescue these gentle creatures. "BUT" only after their persecution, feeling cleansed by this act, we then turn a blind eye to the next cycle of slaughter.

World governments should ensue policies for prevention of cruelty to all species, enshrine it in world law, maybe a "Geneva Convention for animals".

Where is the justice and equilibrium between species ? We as human beings feel that we are above the rest, thinking we are superior is deemed to have given us the ultimate power to do to the animals whatever we wish. As the world can see, this 'policy' is failing miserably.

99.9% of all species to have lived on Earth are now extinct !

It seems that Elephants, Rhinos and Tigers will become a statistic. They are receiving a raw deal, mankind cannot permit this atrocity to continue. This act toward extinction is abhorrent.

Maybe if we stop killing animals we may stop killing one another ? The next threat to us all will be "Genetic Engineering". Regulated, it may be a saviour - but knowing "Man" it too will be a total disaster. Foods and medicines will benefit for this technology, but I feel animals and humans will become one giant experiment.

In the painting there's a scenario where an African man, after being found guilty of animal abuse, is genetically induced to grow TUSKS. Now if "Genetically" speaking this were true would we hunt, track down, mutilate and invade his person for the "Ivory" ? Not a bad idea if it saved the Elephants and Rhinos !

If the necessity for Ivory and other body parts (external) is so desirable why not "farm" them humanely, harvesting the ivory, tusks, etc., leaving the animal free to function and live a relatively normal existence ?

The Ladders

There are three ladders in the painting, two are aspiring, aloof, upward, onward and forthright. They depict the journey to an higher plane mentally and spiritually for wisdom, longevity, the search for a utopian existence on the journey through life.

The third ladder follows the road to the African man with tusks. This ladder is out of control, bent, twisted, deformed. (symbolically) like a cornered rogue Elephant, with nowhere to go. The Red Die (Dice) suggests the unobtainable, chance, the addiction of gambling, vice, sinister deeds - and to the intellectuals out there an old slant that the "Antichrist" is covertly in full battle dress.

The Jigsaw Pieces

Have a twofold meaning, firstly, they represent a dark void, the funereal killing fields these creatures remember. Secondly, they represent the future, these spaces are empty, devoid of the present, they will appear in 10, 20, 30 years time in new paintings. I hope by then we have put this injustice to rest. We shall see....

The Cloud Shadows

Faint "Elephant Shadows" in the clouds represent the ones that have already met with their fate at the hands of man, (elephants, to we humans, have always been associated and synonymous with memory).

Chess Pieces

Chess pieces "Triangular Chessboard" suggest religious overtones - order, manipulation, overthrow, the three points of the holy trinity.

E.W.Powell 11.6.98. Painting completed Dec 1996

Complexity comment:
Prejudice is a nasty thing, but it works both ways. An obsession with self to the exclusion of others is as much prejudicial as is dominance of an individual by a group, or of one group by another. In many cases we are jealous of the state we oppose, we want to be 'them'. Such thinking often ignores the good aspects of our own state, in the words of the old saying: "the grass is always greener on the other side...". The attempt by feminists to emulate men is a case in point, by adopting the worst aspects of male behaviour they "throw out the baby with the bathwater", equality of stupidity is not an improvement, the lowest common denominator is so very easy to achieve. What is difficult, and worth aiming for, is to try to work together, using the best aspects and abilities of each person, and not pre-judging on the basis of irrelevant biological differences.

The world is not black and white ( either/or ) but co-operative. Progress in evolution or elsewhere takes place against a background of symbiosis and not mutual destruction. A cathedral is not built by one person alone, nor a society by one rule giver. By our interactions with each other we influence the direction (creative or destructive) of our micro-evolution and this in turn contributes to our macro-evolution as a species and as a planet.